PANiQ-ROOM: Darkroom

Budapest, Aug 2014

This review was written more than a year after we played it. Whilst we’re confident it’s accurate, it’s short and light on details.

Toby says:

This was the first large team (more than 5 players) room we did. I remember it as rather chaotic, and some of that must have been because of the larger number of people. But it also seemed more amateurish and less polished than the Claustrophilia and TRAP rooms we played in Budapest, with a less carefully crafted puzzle structure.

However, my memory of the room is hazy enough that I had to email the company to confirm which of their offerings it was! Additionally, it was over two years ago and I’ve heard some good things about the company in other locations, so best to take this with a pinch of salt until we get a review from a more recent player. (Have you played this room? Please comment below or drop us an email if so!)

Sam disagrees:

This was our first multi-person room. There were certain parts I really enjoyed, particularly the physical elements, however it was slightly chaotic and lock heavy.

This game is so considerably different to The Invitation, both in game play and in quality. it is so much better. I love a room where you have to search for clues rather then just have difficult puzzles to solve. This was really interactive and once you knew what you were doing, really enjoyable.

Good theming/atmosphere (although not necessarily theming of the puzzles themselves) & lots of puzzle content to keep a team busy.

Had a loss of direction on a couple of occasions, especially at the beginning with working out how to proceed. Has made me appreciate other rooms where it\'s clear where a code goes when acquired, and also that sequence puzzles in an ideal order (frustrating to think you have unlocked a puzzle, but it eventually turns out you didn\'t have everything you needed to solve at the time). Still don\'t enjoy mathematics in any form in rooms (even with a provided calculator!).

Overall an enjoyable experience, surprisingly so given its location which seemed to cater to a younger audience (adjacent to soft-play area, climbing wall etc.). Very happy they offer a price for only 2 people, which seemed very reasonable. Go and visit if in Keswick, make sure to select the \'experienced\' setting when booking.

In doing a range of other escape rooms, I have come across a wide range of puzzles, great use of space and immersion.

As a whole it very much feels that this room tries to have a story to it but for us, it didn’t flow and was incredibly disjointed. We found things before finding the clue to lead to that thing so when we did then find the clue it was redundant and confusing.

The game starts with the GM playing Great Uncle Reginald’s video for you. This takes place in the room and so we of course, took this opportunity to start exploring the room and as a result earned a five minute clue penalty for not paying full attention to the video. Although the room overview states the solicitor has an envelope, inside of which is a VHS tape, it isn’t introduced in this way and we wondered afterwards if it would have been better to have found the video somewhere in the room (as another puzzle almost) and to then have to play it ourselves.

As we got going, we discovered that this room had limited variation in its puzzles - things were in the main either a padlock or a combination code. There was very little variety and whilst this can work in some rooms, it didn’t in this room. There was also scope for variation and some things could have easily been something other than ‘another key’. In terms of the puzzles, one was incredibly simplistic in nature (and wasn’t really even a puzzle) whilst another required careful calculation and working out. It felt like you went from one extreme to the other - there was clear thought put into some puzzles but this was completely lacking in others. My partner asked at the end if this was their first ever room because it felt very much like the puzzles had been created and had never then been updated or reviewed. There are certainly better ways of doing things, or even use of certain tech that could be used to update some of the things in this room. Compared to other rooms, it felt very much behind on the times.

There are two doors in the room to give the feel of it being a B&B, both doors have keyholes in them so naturally you think you’re going to need a key to open them, to lead into different rooms. Unfortunately this is not the case and we wasted a lot of time checking to see if the keyholes actually had locks in. I did say to the GM at the end that they shouldn’t have the keyhole in, to indicate they aren’t used in the game.

For us, there was also poor use of space. We spent a lot of time trying to work out how we were going to get somewhere which was never the case. This wasn’t at all clear and more could have been done in the design of the room to indicate this. It goes back to what I said about the original design not being reviewed or updated.

It really says it all when your partner wants to walk out with 25 minutes to go, as mine did. We were both frustrated by the lack of flow and even us standing around doing nothing didn’t prompt the GM to nudge us in any way. I also think this is where the company’s 3 clue rule falls short. We were reluctant to ask for clues, despite clearly not knowing what to do next, in case we needed to use that clue later on. In any room, I would rather ask for 20 clues and escape than ask for none and not complete it. At the end of the day, it’s my game that I have paid (in most cases a lot of money) to play, and I should be allowed to play it as I want and if that involves me asking for more than 3 clues, that should be allowed.

On the whole, possibly an enjoyable room for novices but I would say not one for more experienced players who have an understanding of escape rooms, who expect things to flow, variation in puzzles and better use of tech to support the room. Unfortunately not just The Last Testament, but my Last Room with Know Escape. I won’t be returning to do another room there.